a history

The Workforce

At Work

At first glance the sight of 'lists' tends not to arouse the
average person's curiosity and certainly the discovery of a small
selection stashed away amongst far more visually exiting documents,
drawings and photos was not a particularly memorable moment in my
research! However, they were dutifully copied to the computer and there
they have remained taking up memory space.

Searching for material for another webpage I by chance came
across one of these lists and I have reproduced it below for all to
examine. I think it was the page entitled "Office Staff" that attracted
my attention - after all it is unusual to see, at the top of the list,
the Office Cleaner! - I know, a list has to begin with something on the
top. Curiously it should be Adams, W.J. at the top - not Mrs Anderson,
I might have skipped it had that been the case.

Here we have a complete Nominal Roll of the Workforce of
Garton & King on the 5th October 1950 - not only the names but
in many cases what it was they were employed to do, even now sixty
years on there will be names people will recognise and perhaps identify
a family member. I was only five at the time and have never worked for
G & K but familiar names are there - Jackson - Venn - Miss
Bendle, Tarr, & Cavill.

Realising that there might be other Lists that are Jewels of
Information I have included here a Timesheet for the Foundry Staff
dated July 1928. Another gem I discovered was a list of employees who
had enlisted into His Majesty's Forces in the Great War, 1914.

I also came across a list of Staff Members dated 4th May 1944,
their addresses and their wartime duties, ie: Home Guard, Auxiliary
Fire Service, Warden etc etc.

One item I discovered was unfortunately too feint to reproduce
so it has been retyped exactly from the original "Letter from
Palestine".

Men who enlisted - 1914.

Letter from Palestine 1918.

Timesheet 1928.

Workforce 1944.

Workforce 1950.

At Leisure

The first mention of Staff jollification and possibly raucous
behaviour was reported in the Trewman's Exeter Flying Post on the 5th
September 1850 - although the report implies it all got off together
with a good send off from High Street it seems the whole company
completely failed to come up to traditional standards set by Works Dos
and all retired home in the early hours "In Good Order" without so much
as a whimper!

Hopefully, with the name changed from Garton & Jarvis
to Garton & King the next record of a big shebang might have
shown a change in behaviour; unfortunately it seems that the next "Do"
that I can find any mention of was just over 100 years later at the
Imperial Hotel, Exeter. An attempt by the Exeter Magical Society
presumably failed to stimulate those present enough either to wreck the
joint or even wake the neighbours when they left!

Thanks to George E Commins of East Grove Road, Exeter we are
able to show a photograph of a Works Day Trip to Looe &
Polperro - the photo was taken at Ashburton; quite when is uncertain
though he tells us that the Works Outings were always in August. He has
been able to identify some of the workforce in the picture.

(George, by the way was an apprentice Moulder for but a very
short time, he joined G & K in 1947; however his father, Harry
Commins, joined the Company on leaving school in about 1927 and retired
from the Company in 1953 having worked his way up from Moulder to
Chargehand. He can be seen in the Imperial Hotel Dinner Photograph.)

Both Harold Williams of Berkshire Drive, Exeter (the picture
of him at his lathe appears in the section on Wheels
& Gears) and George Commins tell us about the Sand
Rats Skittles Team who
were at one time in the early 1950s the League Champions - it is
believed that the photograph was taken at the Prince Albert in Cowick
Street (now The Showman). At the time the Captain was George Tozer
(pattern maker), Fred Thorn (pattern maker), Tony Clark (electrician),
Harry Wood (pipe fitter), Dennis Drew (foundry), P. Tucker (foundry),
Harold Williams (machine shop) & John Heard (machine
shop).There was also a Darts Team in the Exeter Sports League, a
regular Cricket Team (no details but I believe my Uncle Alec was
involved). There was also a football team - the only member of the team
that George Commins recalls was that of his Dad, Harry!

You can see that there are gaping holes relating to the Social
Side of the busines - any information that can add to this Chapter
would be gratefully received - either documents, photographs or,
particularly, memories - you don't have to write to me, you can phone
or email - see the "More About Me Section" !